The Grain of Vision and the Grain of Attention: The Grains of Vision and Attention
Open accessAbstract
Often when there is no attention to an object, there is no conscious perception of it either, leading some to conclude that conscious perception is an attentional phenomenon. There is a well-known perceptual phenomenon—visuo-spatial crowding, in which objects are too closely packed for attention to single out one of them. This article argues that there is a variant of crowding—what I call “identity-crowding”—in which one can consciously see a thing despite failure of attention to it. This conclusion, together with new evidence that attention to an object occurs in unconscious perception, suggests there may be a double dissociation between conscious perception of an object and attention to that object, constraining the extent to which consciousness can be constitutively attentional. The argument appeals to a comparison between the minimal resolution (or “grain”) of object-attention and object-seeing.
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Due to the cost constraint, a conscious individual cannot attend to every stimulus that is sensed but must instead use selective attention that might miss some important stimuli.
“Due to this cost constraint, (1) a conscious individual cannot attend to every stimulus that is sensed but must instead use selective attention (see for instance Tsuchiya and Koch, 2008; Chica et al., 2010; Block, 2012; Tsuchiya and Van Boxtel, 2013; Koch, 2019) that might miss some important stimuli;”
From Phenomenal Consciousness and Emergence: Eliminating the Explanatory Gap (2020) · cites this paper as Block, 2012
The Abstract and Crowding and memory section say that some objects can be consciously seen even when attention cannot single them out. The Introduction also describes unattended stimuli that apparently elude conscious perception. These passages support limits on attention and the possibility of missed stimuli, but do not attribute those limits to a cost constraint or establish the broader claim that selective attention is required for every conscious individual. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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No-Report Paradigms: Extracting the True Neural Correlates of Consciousness
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Self-citationPhenomenal Consciousness and Emergence: Eliminating the Explanatory Gap
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“…attend to every stimulus that is sensed but must instead use selective attention (see for instance Tsuchiya and Koch, 2008; Chica et al., 2010; Block, 2012; Tsuchiya and Van Boxtel, 2013; Koch, 2019) that might miss some important stimuli; (2) some brain processes must run on automatic…”
Background
- Authors
- Block, N.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Block, Ned
- ORCID
- Block, Ned
- Venue
- Thought A Journal of Philosophy
- Publisher
- Philosophy Documentation Center
- Published
- 2012-09
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 170-184
- ISSN
- 2161-2234 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2120175700
- Cited by
- 73
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 6
- FWCI
- 5.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- philarchive.org
- Locations
- Thought A Journal of Philosophy (publishedVersion)
- PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
- Keywords
- conscious perception, attention, unconscious perception, double dissociation, object attention, minimal resolution, visual perception
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